• Date Started: Jul 9, 2020
• Entries: 9
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Questions

10 Responses to “Questions”

1. Lots of Ideas Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 02:10 am 1595988645
   1595988645
   If you have significant debt, you want $1000 in your emergency fund to start. That covers most small unplanned disasters. But you should be putting aside home repair, car repair, and money for everything you pay other than monthly each month so emergencies are truly rare. This set aside p includes things like insurance, car registration/inspection, clothes, gifts.
   
   Saving more isn’t a good use of money because interest on debt adds up so fast.
   
   If you pay off your debts mallets to largest, you get wins along the way to motivate yourself.
   
   You can also challenge yourself to have no spend days, not buy food outside the home for a week, cook from your pantry fr a month, etc.
   Set goals for yourself and a knowledge when you meet them,

2. crazyliblady Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 02:23 am 1595989395
   1595989395
   There is no magic number than works for everyone. A lot depends on you, the stability of your job, dependents, your debts, and other assets. A lot of "experts" advise for 3 months of expenses, but given our current circumstances, more would not be a good idea. To get an idea of what number you need, come up with a budget for basic, bare bones expenses. That will give you one month of expenses. Go from there.

3. crazyliblady Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 02:42 am 1595990525
   1595990525
   Sorry. In my earlier response, I said "more would not be a good idea." I actually meant to say "more would not be a bad idea." That is because more savings would give you more funds to draw upon in an emergency.
   
   I personally also have separate savings accounts for home repair, car replacement, professional expenses, appliances, medical savings, car property tax/aaa membership, etc.

4. crazyliblady Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 02:47 am 1595990857
   1595990857
   I was just looking at your list of debts. You might consider trying to consolidate or refinance some of them. Trying to save money when you have so much going out to debts will make it difficult to do either one.

5. mumof2 Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 10:18 am 1596017902
   1596017902
   I have 2000 in my ice account...and always try to..use when I need to then replenish..then I add a small amount into it each month to build it up...but if you can see if you can refi all or most into one loan and just focus on putting some into your ice acct and the rest onto your loan

6. Wink Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 12:34 pm 1596026084
   1596026084
   I would start with saving $1000 as an emergency fund as others have said. Make this your first goal. When you have achieved this goal, then identify and work towards your next goal. I think that sometimes it can get too overwhelming when you are trying to do too much at once. And of course keep paying on your debts to keep everything current.
   
   As far as where to keep the money? It should be kept wherever it will be safe. This money is for true emergencies only. When I was first saving up my emergency fund I kept it in a savings account, in my name only, and not linked to any other accounts.
   
   I used to keep visual charts of my progress on my goals and it really kept me motivated. I liked to challenge myself with small mini goals along the way, like seeing how many no spend days I could have in a month.
   

7. CB in the City Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 03:54 pm 1596038045
   1596038045
   I agree that $1000 in savings is a good place to start. Use it for emergencies -- real ones -- and then replenish ASAP. Then you can strive to build $2000 in savings. This in itself will be very motivating, because it feels SO GOOD not to charge when you already have debt. Meanwhile, pay more than the minimums on your debt; even a little bit will eventually make a difference. This, too, will feel really good, because you will be taking responsibility. Got a windfall? "Treat yourself" by throwing it at debt.
   
   You are unmotivated only because you don't believe you can do it. You CAN. Everyone here has done it, in one way or another. Report all your successes here, no matter how small, and you will have a bunch of cheerleaders chiming in, because we've all been there.

8. Petunia 100 Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 04:29 pm 1596040180
   1596040180
   Back when I had a lot of consumer debt, I felt so burdened by it all. Paying off one debt was such a relief. I felt lighter and less stressed. That was my motivation to pay off another one; I wanted to feel even better.
   
   Another thing I like to do is set up debt amortization on an excel spreadsheet and track the interest I save as I make extra principal payments. This motivates me to throw ANY amount I can at debt.
   
   Another motivator for me is a good tracking chart which I color in as I go.
   
   Yet another motivator for me is cheering along other people who are trying to pay off their debt. Blogs (like yours!), YouTube, Facebook groups, wherever people share about their debt payoff journey.
   
   Currently, I have 6 months of bare bones expenses in savings, plus sinking funds for various irregular expenses. I would like to have more but paying off debt is a higher priority. If I had high interest debt, I would not keep as much in cash.

9. Petunia 100 Says:
   July 29th, 2020 at 04:34 pm 1596040497
   1596040497
   Also, if those debts on your side bar there were mine, I would pick either the Care Credit or the Wells Fargo and then throw every spare penny at it that I could, while paying minimums only on everything else. Use online bill pay and make multiple payments per month; don't let your extra $5 sit there, or there will be some other use for it.

10. crazyliblady Says:
    August 24th, 2020 at 04:42 pm 1598287329
    1598287329
    Can you refinance your mortgage

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